The City of Rathdrum City Council on Oct. 23 approved the 2025–26 personnel policy after staff summarized numerous edits requested by employees and required by law.

City Administrator Leon, who presented the draft policy, told the council that “over 50% of all of our edits come from employee information” and described the document as a “living document” the city reviews annually to address day-to-day issues and legal changes. Leon outlined changes ranging from clearer definitions of “probationary” status to expanded language on investigations, reasonable-accommodation requests under the Americans with Disabilities Act and a new AI/chatbot usage paragraph in the computer policy appendix.

The council approved the policy with three specific exceptions. The motion — made by Mayor Hill and seconded by a councilmember — added language to give employees one half of their regularly scheduled shift as holiday pay for the day before Thanksgiving and for Dec. 24, rejected the proposed change identified as section b5 c4 for this year, and directed staff to refine Appendix G, section 6 language to allow consultation with the city’s current insurance provider or city attorney when removing the city attorney’s appointment. The motion passed. (Vote tally: approved; individual roll-call names and tallies were recorded at the meeting.)

Why it matters: the annual personnel policy governs pay, leave and internal procedures used by all city employees and clarifies several items employees raised over the past year. Several provisions are procedural housekeeping; others have budget or legal implications, such as caps and cash-out options for combined vacation/sick leave and future changes to employer contributions to employee VEBA accounts.

Key changes and council directions

- Investigations: the policy clarifies that investigations may be initiated under any city or department policy and currently are handled by the city administrator; Leon said an HR director would take that role in the future when hired.

- PTO and cash-out: the draft replaces a “no more than two weeks” phrase with an 80-hour limit to avoid ambiguity about consecutiveness. The city retained an existing use-or-lose cap of 240 hours for the lead bank but discussed legal and budget checks needed to raise cash-out caps or convert more hours into VEBA contributions.

- VEBA contributions: staff discussed the mechanics and potential costs of automatic VEBA contributions tied to employee tenure; Leon said the city must verify legal limits and budget impacts before changing policy.

- Reasonable accommodations and ADA: staff added a policy section to process reasonable-accommodation requests required by the ADA.

- Computer/AI: an AI/chatGPT usage policy was added to the appendix; staff noted the city is exploring an enterprise AI product that would centralize prompts for public-records compliance.

Council follow-up and budget implications

Councilmembers asked staff to take several items to the benefits committee for further legal review (for example, whether additional VEBA contributions are permissible and what caps apply) and to model budget impacts before making permanent changes. Leon said larger cash-out or monthly VEBA-contribution proposals would require auditor review and additional budget authority before adoption.

Ending

Staff will workshop the benefits and VEBA questions with the benefits committee, return with clarifying language for Appendix G, and publish the updated personnel policy as adopted with the council’s exceptions.